F-Secure Internet Security 2012

Antivirus gets good scores in PCMag's tests and independent tests. DeepGuard uses statistical and behavioral techniques to detect malware. Includes revamped parental control. Blocks access to malicious and phishing URLs. Very small effect on performance.

Cons
DeepGuard called some valid programs harmful in testing. Antiphishing is weak. Firewall easily disabled. Parental control is not browser-independent.

Bottom Line

Most components of F-Secure Internet Security 2012 do a good job, though phishing protection and parental control are weak. Its effect on system performance is very low. As good as it is, other suites are better.

Over the past year designers at F-Secure have worked hard to give their products a streamlined and consistent user interface. At first glance F-Secure Internet Security 2012 ($59.99 direct for three licenses) looks almost identical to the corresponding standalone antivirus program. Online Safety, the parental control component of this security suite, is laid out in exactly the same way. They've made improvements in product performance and accuracy as well, though in my testing I found the behavior-based DeepGuard system flagged valid files as well as malware.

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New in this edition is the F-Secure Launchpad, a small desktop gadget from which you can launch either the main internet security application or the separate parental control component. Going forward, F-Secure will integrate its other products into the launchpad.

This edition also adds a new mobile broadband feature. Like metered broadband in Norton Internet Security 2012 ($69.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars), this feature aims to save you from outrageous data charges by suppressing updates when you're using an expensive connection.

Average AntivirusThe F-Secure suite builds on the antivirus protection found in the standalone F-Secure Anti-Virus 2012 ($39.99 direct for three licenses, 3 stars). For full details, see my review of that product. I'll summarize here.

Getting F-Secure installed on a dozen malware-infested test systems wasn't easy. On some it wouldn't install; on others it installed but wouldn't update. Sorting out these problems required multiple tools, among them the no-install F-Secure Easy Clean and the F-Secure Rescue CD. When both of those failed, the tech support recommendation to run a command-line scanner in Safe Mode solved the problem.

F-Secure detected 85 percent of the malware samples but scored just 6.2 points out of a possible 10 for removal due to leaving some allegedly-removed threats actively running. A couple of those still-running samples were rootkits, so even though it detected 100 percent of rootkits it only scored 6.3 for rootkit removal. Like many of its competitors, F-Secure detected 100 percent of the scareware samples and scored 9.5 points. For full details of how I test malware cleanup and derive these scores, see How We Test Malware Removal.

When challenged to keep malware from infesting a clean system, F-Secure did a better job. It detected 91 percent of threats overall and 100 percent of rootkit and scareware samples. It's score of 8.6 points for malware blocking is above average. The 9.1 points it scored for rootkit blocking is a hair above average, and 9 points for scareware blocking is precisely average. To learn where these scores come from, please read How We Test Malware Blocking.

I did run into a spot of trouble with the DeepGuard behavior and reputation based detection system. While it flagged a number of my malware samples, it also identified a quarter of the perfectly valid PCMag utilities as suspicious and totally blocked one of them, calling it harmful.

Like the file insight feature in Norton and Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 ($79.95 direct for three licenses, 3.5 stars), DeepGuard now incorporates prevalence and other statistical elements in its analysis. The obscure utilities I used for testing were flagged for low prevalence, not for actual harmful content, according to F-Secure. The DeepGuard warning popup really ought to explain that fact.

The independent labs that test F-Secure's technology give it generally good marks. In particular, it scores ADVANCED+ (the highest rating) in the grueling whole-product test conducted by AV-Comparatives.org and consistently achieved certification in tests by AV-Test.org. The chart below summarizes results from the labs. To learn how we interpret these results please see How We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests.

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